A Place at the Table

 Sixth grade is not at all what Sara was hoping it would be.  For the last five years, she's attended a small Islamic school, but now she's at public school where being Pakistani American makes her feel like a target.  She withdraws into herself and only really enjoys art class.  Plus, her parents won't let her stay home alone while her mom leads an after school cooking club at her school.  Sara loves her mother, but she is sick of her life always being about her mom's catering business, and now it's bleeding into her school life, too.  What will the other kids say when her hijab-wearing mother tries to teach them how to cook Pakistani food?

Elizabeth is struggling to fit in, too.  She and Maddie have been best friends for years, but now Maddie only wants to hang out with Stephanie, and she seems to have lost her love for their favorite tv show, Doctor Who.  She's excited about cooking club because there is never anything good to eat at home.  Her mother has never done much more than heat up frozen stuff, but now she's fallen into a real depression since Elizabeth's English grandmother died over the summer.  She knows her mother misses England.  What if this is the last straw, and she decides she can't live in America anymore?

When the two are forced to partner up in cooking club, they begin a shaky alliance.  Sara is so worried about people bullying her for being a Muslim or the child of immigrant parents, she comes across as angry and gruff.  Elizabeth wants to be friends with Sarah, but she also doesn't want to let go of Maddie who clearly doesn't approve of her new Muslim friend.  They finally start to build common ground as religious outsiders.  Sara is Muslim, and Elizabeth is Jewish.  They soon discover they can make delicious food together if they are willing to let go of their assumptions and stand up to bullies, even if they are former friends.

This new book by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan is a sweet and gentle story about what can happen when we are willing to look for common ground rather than see people as "other."  Neither Sara nor Elizabeth has to give anything up to become friends, and they both gain a great deal through their relationship.  The authors try to look at all the characters with empathy, and even some of the worst ones are not so awful in the end.  Highly recommended.